Background and Aims: Vitamin D insufficiency is prevalent in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease, as well as in pregnant women; however, the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in pregnant women with IBD is unknown. This study assessed the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in pregnant women with IBD and the adequacy of recommended supplementation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease=61, ulcerative colitis=41) and without inflammatory bowel disease (n=574)...

Vitamin D deficiency is an emerging health concern around the world, highly prevalent in south Asian population, despite abundant sunlight. In Pakistan, all age groups are vulnerable to Vitamin D deficiency including pregnant women. This systematic review aimed to determine the pattern of Vitamin D deficiency among Pakistani pregnant women as well as exploring the causes and possible interventions that have had a substantial effect on improving the vitamin D level. Three databases (PubMed, Pub Get and Google Scholar), for the present review up to 2016, were used for the identification of published peer reviewed original relevant studies regarding Vitamin D deficiency among Pakistani pregnant women with the keywords Vitamin D or 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D in combination with pregnant women...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the dietary intake of pregnant women and their nutritional status of Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, and Cu, as the nutritional status of pregnant women is an important factor for the proper progression of a pregnancy and the development and health of the foetus. METHODS: The study was conducted on 108 pregnant women ages 18-42, at 6-32 weeks of gestation. We used a questionnaire and a 24-h recall nutrition interview. Hair samples were taken for testing and the level of each mineral was assessed using atomic absorption spectrometry...

Homocysteine (Hcy) is thiol group containing the amino acid, which naturally occurs in all humans. Hcy is degraded in the body through two metabolic pathways, while a minor part is excreted through kidneys. The chemical reactions that are necessary for degradation of Hcy require the presence of the folic acid, vitamins B6 and B12. Consequently, the level of the total Hcy in the serum is influenced by the presence or absence of these vitamins. An elevated level of the Hcy, hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) and homocystinuria are connected with occlusive artery disease, especially in the brain, the heart, and the kidney, in addition to venous thrombosis, chronic renal failure, megaloblastic anemia, osteoporosis, depression, Alzheimer's disease, pregnancy problems, and others...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship of vitamin D level with the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants. METHODS: A total of 429 preterm infants with a gestational age of <36 weeks, who were admitted to the department of neonatology within 2 hours after birth between January and December, 2016, were enrolled in the study. According to whether these infants developed NEC, the 429 subjects were divided into NEC group (n=22) and non-NEC group (n=407)...

The fetal origins of health and disease framework has identified extremes in fetal growth and birth weight as factors associated with the lifelong generation of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. Maternal nutrition plays a critical role in fetal and placental development, in part by providing the methyl groups required to establish the fetus's genome structure and function, notably through DNA methylation. The goal of this narrative review is to describe the role of maternal dietary methyl donor (methionine, folate, and choline) and cofactor (zinc and vitamins B2, B6, and B12) intake in one-carbon metabolism and DNA methylation in the fetus and placenta, as well as their impacts on fetal growth and lifelong health outcomes, with specific examples in animals and humans...

In this paper, 153 infertile women undergoing induction of ovulation at an academic tertiary care centre were included in a cross-sectional study. Serum Vitamin D level was measured and the rate of clinical pregnancy (defined as a sonographic presence of FHR of an intrauterine gestational sac) and patient and cycle parameters were determined. The results showed that a correlation exists between endometrial thickness as well as the number of antral follicles and replete level of Vitamin D. Interestingly, the median level of these two parameters was of upmost level in the most replete tertile of serum Vitamin D level...

OBJECTIVES: Lower vitamin D status has been associated with adiposity in children through adults. However, the evidence of the impact of maternal vitamin-D status during pregnancy on offspring's adiposity is mixed. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between maternal vitamin-D [25(OH)D] status at mid-gestation and neonatal abdominal adipose tissue (AAT) compartments, particularly the deep subcutaneous adipose tissue linked with metabolic risk. METHODS: Participants (N = 292) were Asian mother-neonate pairs from the mother-offspring cohort, Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes...

OBJECTIVE: Data on dietary vitamin D (vitD) intake, sunlight exposure, and the associated determinants are lacking in Africa. The aim of this study was to establish the factors influencing vitD intake and sunlight exposure among pregnant women in an African population with the goal of improving maternal vitD nutrition. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 703 mother-infant pairs accessing postnatal care at the five main health facilities in Cape Coast, Ghana in 2016...

Vitamin E is obtained only through the diet and has a number of important biological activities, including functioning as an antioxidant. Evidence that free radicals may contribute to pathological processes such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a disease of prematurity associated with increased lung injury, inflammation and oxidative stress, led to trials of the antioxidant vitamin E (α-tocopherol) to prevent BPD with variable results. These trials were all conducted at supraphysiologic doses and 2 of these trials utilized a formulation containing a potentially harmful excipient...

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to explore the role of perinatal vitamin-D intake on the development and characterization of hyperkyphosis in a porcine model. METHODS: The spines of 16 pigs were assessed at 9, 13, and 17 weeks of age with radiography and at 17 weeks with computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), histology, and bone-density testing. An additional 169 pigs exposed to 1 of 3 maternal dietary vitamin-D levels from conception through the entire lactation period were fed 1 of 4 nursery diets supplying different levels of vitamin D, calcium, and phosphorus...

BACKGROUND: We previously explored associations between nutrients including folate and other macro and micronutrients and risks of anophthalmia or microphthalmia in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. In the current study, we expand those previous results with larger sample sizes and conduct analyses with an additional diet quality index using more recent data. METHODS: The National Birth Defects Prevention Study is a population-based, multicenter case-control study of over 30 major birth defects, with estimated due dates from October 1997 to December 2011...

BACKGROUND: Nutritional requirements need to be met in order to adapt to pre- and postnatal changes. Our aim was to systematically review the evidence of associations between nutritional biomarkers and psychological distress during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Scielo, LILACS, clinicaltrials.gov, International Clinical Trials Registry, Cochrane Library, Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched for articles from inception to 4/15/2016...

This narrative systematic review evaluates growing evidence of an association between low maternal vitamin D status and increased risk of hypertensive disorders. The inclusion of interventional, observational, and dietary studies on vitamin D and all hypertensive disorders of pregnancy is a novel aspect of this review, providing a unique contribution to an intensively-researched area that still lacks a definitive conclusion. To date, trial evidence supports a protective effect of combined vitamin D and calcium supplementation against preeclampsia...

BACKGROUND: Women's health during their reproductive years and whilst pregnant has implications for their children's health, both in utero and during childhood. Associations of women's pre-pregnancy dietary patterns (DP) with maternal socio-demographic characteristics and nutrient intake were investigated in ProcriAr cohort study in São Paulo/Brazil, 2012. METHODS: The DPs of 454 women were investigated by principal component factor analysis, using dietary information from a validated 110-item food frequency questionnaire...

BACKGROUND: There is uncertainty about the influence of diet during pregnancy and infancy on a child's immune development. We assessed whether variations in maternal or infant diet can influence risk of allergic or autoimmune disease. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Two authors selected studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess certainty of findings. We searched Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE), Web of Science, Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Literatura Latino Americana em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS) between January 1946 and July 2013 for observational studies and until December 2017 for intervention studies that evaluated the relationship between diet during pregnancy, lactation, or the first year of life and future risk of allergic or autoimmune disease...

Gestational vitamin D deficiency (VDD) has been linked with adverse pregnant outcomes. To investigate influent factors of gestational VDD and its relation to the incidence of preterm delivery, total 3598 eligible mother-and-singleton-offspring pairs were recruited. For serum 25(OH)D concentration, 941 pregnant women were sufficient, 1260 insufficient, and 1397 deficient. Further analysis showed that VDD was more prevalent in winter than in other seasons. Underweight but not overweight was a risk factor for gestational VDD...

INTRODUCTION: As many as 250 million children under the age of 5 may not be reaching their full developmental potential partly due to poor nutrition during pregnancy and the first 2 years of life. Micronutrients, including vitamin B12 , are important for the development of brain structure and function; however, the timing, duration and severity of deficiencies may alter the impact on functional development outcomes. Consequently, to fully explore the effect of vitamin B12 on cognitive function, it is crucial to measure neurodevelopment at different ages, in different populations and with vitamin B12 supplementation at different times during the critical periods of neurodevelopment...

Emerging evidence has demonstrated that vitamin D plays an important role in many adult neurologic disorders, but is also critical in neuronal development and pruning in the neonatal and pediatric populations. Neonates are at a particularly high risk of vitamin D deficiency, in part due to the high prevalence of maternal deficiency during pregnancy. Several preclinical studies have demonstrated that infants born to vitamin D-deficient mothers are at a high risk of developing neonatal brain injury, and recent clinical studies have shown that neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) tend to be vitamin D-deficient...

The intrauterine environment is critical for fetal growth and organ development. Evidence from animal models indicates that the developing kidney is vulnerable to suboptimal maternal nutrition and changes in health status. However, evidence from human studies are yet to be synthesised. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to systematically review current research on the relationship between maternal nutrition during pregnancy and offspring kidney structure and function in humans. A search of five databases identified 9501 articles, of which three experimental and seven observational studies met the inclusion criteria...